On Monday the court continued with the testimony of DCT-008, addressing the events leading up to the death of RUF commander Sam Bockarie in 2003 and Daniel Tamba. DCT-008 account was consistent with Mr. Taylor’s version of events. The witness told the court that what Lima Tango (another radio operator) told me was that Sam Bockarie had a group of armed men, uncountable number of armed men, and he was trying to return to Liberia but at this time, the Liberia security tried to stop him. He said the group was led by Moses Blah. Blah was ordered to arrest Sam Bockarie but when they got there, Sam Bockarie resisted arrest, and Blah said, “do not waste time with that man, if he resists arrest, just kill him and bring his body to me”. The witness further stated that Bockarie was then killed and his body taken to Blah.
DCT-008 was then asked to explain what the Liberian government’s reaction was to this incident and the witness explained that “what I heard from the government through the defence minister was that Sam Bockarie, after he had left Liberia, attempted to come to Liberia with a fighting force, which the Government of Liberia wanted to stop and when he opened fire on the government security, they killed him”. His testimony also addressed Daniel Tamba’s death. The Prosecution have alleged that Mr. Tamba, aka Jungle, was Mr. Taylor’s liaison with the RUF in Sierra Leone and was executed on Mr Talyor’s command when he returned to Liberia. However, other defence witnesses have told the court that Jungle was Benjamin Yeaten’s contact in the RUF and this was unknown to Taylor. DCT-008 explained to the court that Jungle returned to Liberia after the disarmament in Sierra Leone and became part of Mr. Taylor’s security forces but died from a friendly fire, from a friendly gun. “He was engaging the enemy forces; he was hit by a BZT at the back. While the BZT was giving them cover, the BZT mistakenly hit him in the back” he added. The witness also recalled Yeaten’s reaction to Jungle’s death telling the court that Yeaten came to Monrovia constantly crying that he had lost Jungle. He was very sad.
On Tuesday DCT-008 testified that Joseph Zig Zag Marzah never had physical access to Mr. Taylor. Mr. Marzah had told the court in 2008 that he had personally be given orders by Mr. Taylor to transport arms and ammunition in exchange for rough diamonds, execute individuals in Liberia and, as members of the same secret society, that he had also consumed the remains of these individuals with Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor had called Mr. Marzah’s evidence lies.
Mr. Morris Anyah asked the witness “did the president of Liberia have one on one interaction, such as meals, with someone like Zig Zag Marzah?” The witness answered no. Justice Julia Sebutinde then asked the witness whether he was actually there. The witness responded “Your honor, I said no because looking at the personnel in this situation, because even the special assistant to Benjamin Yeaten, Samson Wai, did not have physical proximity to the president and Marzah was just like a servant to Benjamin Yeaten”. The further stated that during the time he was assigned to the Executive Mansion, he never had the privilege to see the president because he was very far from them. “We will sometimes see his convoy from our office but we never went very close to him”.
DCT-008 was also asked to explain the nature and extent of communications between Mr. Yeaten’s residence and RUF headquarters in Buedu. The witness told the court that communications only started in the late 1990s, and evidence that such contact existed in the mid 1990s is false. He explained that “to my knowledge, in 94, 95 up to 97, there was no communication between the Government of Liberia or the NPFL at the time and the RUF”. Justice Richard Lussick, asked how the witness knew? He said that he was told by previous operators that in 1991-92, there was communication between the NPFL and the RUF, but after that, there was no link between the NPFL and the RUF. However, when pressed by the Judge to recall the specific names of these operators, the witness said ”sorry, I cannot remember their names but I can remember this information”.The witness also addressed previous testimony that Mr. Bockarie took direct orders from Mr. Yeaten, explaining that it is not to my knowledge that Yeaten instructed Sam Bockarie on military operations.
He also dismissed suggestions that Mr. Yeaten had personally congratulated Mr. Bockarie after the 1999 capture of Freetown. “First of all, please be informed that there was no occasion that Benjamin Yeaten spoke on the radio with anybody. Sam Bockarie and Benjamin Yeaten never spoke to each other on the radio as far as I am concerned” the witness said.
The examination-in-chief of DCT-008 continued on Wednesday and directly addressed claims made by radio operators called by the prosecution. These witnesses told the court that RUF commanders sent regular radio messages to Mr. Taylor and received regular instructions from Mr. Taylor and Mr. Yeaten through a radio operator known as Sun Light. In July 2008, a prosecution witness and former RUF radio operator, TFI-567, had told the court that after the RUF had captured Kono in December 1998, RUF headquarters in Buedu communicated with Liberian authorities through Sun Light, who was in charge of the Base One radio set in Liberia. However, DCT-008 questioned this account telling the court, “It did not happen so. I have my doubts because Sun Light never visited Sierra Leone to know what was happening there. Sun Light did not give any report on RUF operations, Sun Light did not have any contacts with the RUF organization. He was only communicating with Sam Bockarie on behalf of Benjamin Yeaten”.
DCT-008 also addressed claims by TFI-567 that Mr. Yeaten had taken the operator to see Mr. Taylor at the Executive Mansion around 10:00PM one night, while in Liberia. The witness told the court that he was not aware of this meeting or Charles Taylor receiving visitors at the Executive Mansion late in the night. Justice Richard Lussick then enquired, “Yesterday, you said that in all your time at the Executive Mansion, you never even got to see the president. So how would you know if he received visitors?” The witness replied, this is why I said that it is not to my knowledge that the president received visitors late at night. The witness also disputed evidence from TFI-585, who testified in 2008 that when rebel forces invaded Freetown in 1999, Mr. Yeaten spoke to RUF commander Mr. Bockarie. He told the court that he was not aware of that. “For the time that I was at 50′s house, 50 never spoke to Sam Bockarie on the radio, infact, 50 never spoke to anybody on the radio, whether for family or government issues. He also added that he was not aware of Mr. Yeaten travelling to Buedu.
DCT-008 also commented on the testimony of RUF signal commander, Mohamed Beretay Kabbah, who testified in 2008 that the radio operator Sun Light had kept the RUF informed on ECOMOG bombers – Iron Birds – targeting RUF positions in Sierra Leone, as they left Roberts International Airport. The witness told the court, “first of all, I do not know the code 448 to be reference to an ECOMOG jet. And when Base One was communicating with Buedu, there was no communication regarding ECOMOG jet”.He recalled that they had their own code that referenced an enemy plane which was 15-2. During the NPFL days, when ECOMOG was carrying out air raids against the NPFL, the NPFL radio communication used Iron Bird but this was not expedient as it could reveal what we were talking about and when we went into government, Iron Bird was cancelled and we used the code 15-2.
The witness continued by explaining that Base One was situated in Kongor town in Monrovia. The RIA where ECOMOG was located is far away from Base One. Base One had no knowledge of ECOMOG jets. “Yes, we could hear a plane when moving but we had no knowledge of where it was going, so the issue of communication regarding the movement of ECOMOG jets never occurred. However, the witness did concede that it was possible for somebody at RIA to get in touch with Base One either by radio or telephone but assured the court that this did not occur.
On Thursday the Defence concluded their examination in chief of DCT-008. The conclusion of this direct testimony occurred mainly under private session to protect other witness’ identities. After the examination was concluded, the prosecutors applied for disclosure order against the defence. Lead prosecutor Brenda Hollis told the judges, “in general, what we have is a witness whose testimony is totally different from what he had told the defense, we ask that you order the defense to disclose the full statements immediately”. Morris Anyah, for the Defence, opposed the application arguing that the prosecution has no automatic rights to the defence witness statements and that the prosecution had not established that the non-disclosure of the witness statement would cause irreparable damage and thus as the test was not satisfied there would be no need for the order to be granted. “The prosecution is not entitled to disclosure, they have not met the necessary legal steps and the witness’ statements should not be disclosed”.
The Judges retired to deliberate and ruled against the prosecution after 30 minutes of deliberation application. Presiding Judge, Justice Julia Sebutinde stated that “We agree with the defence that the prosecution has not satisfied the requirement that the statements of the witness be disclosed…we dismiss the application”. After this ruling the prosecution asked for an early adjournment to prepare the cross-examination of DCT-008. This was granted.
On Friday, the defence team indicated to all parties that DCT-008 is likely to be the defence’s final witness. This news was sent, via email, to all parties including the judges from lead defence counsel Courtenay Griffiths. The email was read in court by the presiding judge, Justice Julia Sebutinde. The defence also clarified that this did not mean that they were retracting the pending motion relating to allegations of the prosecution paying potential defence witness DCT-097 US$30,000. As such the defence still wish to establish that the prosecutors have been paying witnesses to testify against Mr. Taylor. The defence claim that DCT-097 was contacted by the prosecution and initially given large sums of money to testify against Mr. Taylor but the payments ceased when the witness did not tell them what they wished to hear.
The cross examination of DCT-008 commenced after this discussion. Lead Prosecutor Brenda Hollis, put it to the witness that he had a close relationship with Mr. Taylor and had discussed security issues with the former President.
The witness denied that this was the case, telling the court I was never close to Charles Taylor I never sat with Mr. Taylor for any discussions on security matters the only time I spoke with him was in 2003 when some of our men went missing in the Lofa forest. In explaining this exception, DCT-008 told the court that I met with the president because I put in place a mechanism how to locate the men and Benjamin Yeaten wanted me to train the commanders on how to use the Thuraya satellite phone. That was the opportunity I had to meet the president.
